Podcasts about kennewick

Washington Democrat Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez got booed at a town hall. Lawmakers in Olympia continue the debate over trans athletes. Three people were killed in a shooting in Newcastle. Guest: Ken Peterson is the director of a new documentary that highlights the dangers of net zero energy polices. // LongForm: GUEST: Daniel Washam with D's Wicked Cider in Kennewick is closing his business, saying Democrats are killing the industry. // Quick Hit: Washington firefighters have a new way to fight fires started by EVs.

In this episode Londa and David talk about the economy and how we survive with people at our core. Angela Lee Duckworth TEDTalk ↓ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8 Want more of Londa and David? Follow us on social media! @londasherwoodaustin on TikTok and Instagram Don't forget to rate us five stars wherever you listen to our show!

This episode Londa and David talk about the Rocket Mortgage x mr. cooper merger, how sales has changed and the impact a good salesperson can have.Want more of Londa and David?Follow us on social media!@londasherwoodaustin on TikTok and Instagram

This week Londa and David discuss saunas, gentle parenting and common courtesy in public.Mel Robbins ft. Dr. Vonda Wright ↓https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/look-feel-stay-young-forever-1-orthopedic-surgeons/id1646101002?i=1000697960651Want more of Londa and David?Follow us on social media!@londasherwoodaustin on Instagram and TikTok!

Londa has been cancer free for FOUR years and opens up about the process and what life is like with menopause. Want more of Londa & David?Follow us on social media!@londasherwoodaustin on everything!

This episode, Londa and David recount their vacay and talk about Tariffs and how they will affect YOU! Want more of Londa and David? Follow us on social media! @londasherwoodaustin on all platforms and www.sherwoodaustin.com

This episode Londa and David discuss a client interaction and how they handled it. Want more of Londa and David?Follow us on social media!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/londasherwoodaustin/Tiktokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@londasherwoodaustin

Puget Sound Energy is considering moving power lines underground to prevent outages. Jeff Bezos announced some big changes to the opinion section of the Washington Post. Bruce Harrell and the Downtown Seattle Association provided an update on the state of Downtown. // Big Local: The City of Tacoma just spent money to virtue signal. Just hours after King County and the local transit union reached an agreement to create a safety task force, someone was shot at the Renton Metro Transit Center. A teen in Kennewick was arrested in an armed robbery at a coffee shop. // You Pick the Topic: Jake Tapper is releasing a very ironic book about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

This episode Londa and David discuss grand kids, the market and The Restaurant Review that No One Asked For!Want more of Londa and David?Follow us on social media!@londasherwoodaustin on Instagram and Tiktok!

In this weeks episode we dive into Super Bowl LIX and why clear communication is a necessity.Want more?@londasherwoodaustin on all socialswww.sherwoodaustin.com to help you make all the right moves.

As we get into this new year and start thinking about upcoming events, registration for the 2025 Ag World Golf Classic is now open.

As we get into this new year and start thinking about upcoming events, registration for the 2025 Ag World Golf Classic is now open.

About the Guest(s): Dr. Kyle Bryant is a respected chiropractor and expert in functional extremity adjusting, currently operating in Kennewick, Washington. He is a Certified Chiropractic Extremities Practitioner (CCEP) with extensive experience in integrating low-level laser therapy into chiropractic treatments. After beginning his chiropractic journey in Ireland, where he served as a team chiropractor for a traveling sports team, Dr. Bryant further honed his skills in Spokane, Washington. He has recently launched Functional Extremities Chiropractor (FEC), a robust training program for professionals aiming to specialize in extremity and joint care. Episode Summary: Join Dr. Chad Woolner and Dr. Andrew Wells in this enlightening episode of the Laser Light Show as they explore the intersection of chiropractic care and low-level laser therapy with special guest Dr. Kyle Bryant. Known for his expertise in functional extremity adjusting, Dr. Bryant shares insights about his newly launched program and the unique integration of laser therapy in his practice, ICE (Integrative Chiropractic and Extremities). Dr. Bryant discusses how his foundational experiences with sports injuries led to a passion for chiropractic care, particularly extremity adjustments. Through his Functional Extremities Chiropractor program, he aims to educate practitioners on handling extremity and joint issues effectively. The discussion highlights the complementarity of low-level laser therapy with chiropractic treatments, showcasing how these modalities can expedite patient recovery and enhance treatment outcomes. By stacking therapies like chiropractic adjustments and laser treatments, practitioners can offer comprehensive care that improves patient satisfaction and increases clinical efficacy. Key Takeaways: Dr. Bryant has launched the Functional Extremities Chiropractor program, designed to educate practitioners on effective extremity adjustments. Integration of low-level laser therapy with chiropractic adjustments can significantly expedite recovery and enhance treatment outcomes. The FEC system helps identify proprioceptive deficiencies in patients, allowing tailored treatments to improve joint function and alleviate pain. Laser therapy provides a non-invasive method to restore function and mitigate symptoms, benefiting a wide range of patient conditions. The combination of techniques and the systematic approach in Dr. Bryant's practice maximizes the physiological benefits for patients. Notable Quotes: "The FEC system helps chiropractors gain confidence by understanding how the biomechanical side of extremities influences the spine and vice versa." "Lasering the brain in conjunction with an extremity issue can help restore function as opposed to merely alleviating pain." "One of the biggest takeaways from chiropractic care combined with laser therapy is that there's only an upside potential." "With lasers, you can expand your ability to help a wider range of conditions walking through your door." "The goal is to find the source of issues, not only to relieve pain but to restore functionality." Resources: Functional Extremities Chiropractor Program: functionalextremitieschiropractor.com Clinic: Integrative Chiropractic and Extremities (ICE) Mentioned Practitioners: Dr. Trevor Berry, Dr. Brandon Brock, Dr. Kurt Gehr, Dr. Kristin Heischetter, Dr. Rob Silverman, Dr. Dan Murphy. Functional Health Mastery Delve into this episode to uncover a wealth of approaches on how low-level laser therapy can revolutionize extremity care in chiropractic practice and stay tuned for more enlightening content from the Laser Light Show.

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - September 7, 2024 - Jesus Christ admonished the Ephesian church for having left their "first love". After years of walking in the faith, we can begin to take our calling for granted. We may end up with "battle scars" from the effort to remain faithful. We must not only do as God instructs, but love doing it, keeping our "first love" alive.

Jason “Puck” Puckett, former KJR host is joined by  Todd Milles, Scorebook Live Washington Senior Editor, who has been covering high school athletics since 1994, reveals the top 10 high school football teams in the state of Washington, regardless of classifications. The top 10 teams are: Bellevue, Lake Stevens, Camas, Eastside Catholic, Sumner, Anacortes, Eastlake, Kennewick, Kennedy Catholic, and Linden. Todd provides insights into each team and their strengths, including standout players and coaching strategies. He emphasizes the depth and talent of these teams and predicts a challenging season for Lake Stevens as they aim for a historic three-peat.TakeawaysThe top 10 high school football teams in Washington, regardless of classifications, are Bellevue, Lake Stevens, Camas, Eastside Catholic, Sumner, Anacortes, Eastlake, Kennewick, Kennedy Catholic, and Linden.Each team has its own strengths, including talented players and experienced coaching staff.Lake Stevens faces the challenge of replacing 10 defensive starters from last year's team, but their strong offensive backfield gives them an advantage.Bellevue is considered the most complete team in the state, with a deep roster and a strong coaching staff.The high school football season in Washington is highly anticipated and there is excitement around the top teams and their potential for success.

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - August 10, 2024 - The Bible talks in multiple places about being willing and cheerful givers. Giving helps us to develop the character of God the Father and Jesus Christ, who have set the example for us. It stores up treasure in heaven! It places our trust in God as the Ultimate Provider in our lives. A giving nature is also a quality of those who will inherit eternal life at the return of Jesus Christ. God loves a cheerful giver!

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - July 27, 2024 - Our physical body plays an important role in the spiritual relationship we develop and maintain with God. Yet it's easy for us to view our body as disconnected from our spirituality. This sermon explores four ways in which the purpose of our physical body relates to the divine plan of God. Do we value our physical body as much God does?

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - August 3, 2024 - Faith is the absolute trust in the goodness and promises of God. Living faith is acting upon that trust. Man will let us down, but God never will. Living from faith to faith, increases our faith. No matter what the outcome in this life, those who live by faith always win.

On today's episode, we have an old friend and a highly successful practice owner, Dr. Spencer Greer, joining us. Spencer owns Mid Columbia Dental, located in Kennewick and Pasco, Washington. He is an award-winning dentist and an authority in implant dentistry, certified in conscious sedation. In his free time, Spencer enjoys surfing, golfing, sleeping, eating donuts, and watching movies with his wife and kids. In this episode, Spencer shares his recent journey with the carnivore diet, guided by Dr. Faustine Dinn, to manage his autoimmune disease. We dive into his experience, the challenges, and the surprising benefits he's encountered. Spencer also gives us an inside look at his dental career, including his path to owning multiple practices, his practice management strategies, and how he mentors new associates to achieve high productivity. Spencer's approach focuses on diagnosing effectively, maximizing treatment acceptance, and maintaining a positive and efficient work environment. He also discusses his mentorship program, Big Time Dental Producers, aimed at helping other dentists ramp up their production and achieve financial success. Listeners can benefit from Spencer's mentorship sessions, with a special discount code "MARK" for 10% off any course offerings. Tune in to learn valuable insights and practical tips to enhance your dental practice.   EPISODE RESOURCES https://midcolumbiadental.com https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - July 13, 2024 - Trusting relationships require work to build and maintain. As our loving Creator, God is the only one we can ultimately trust with our salvation. However, He has also designed intimate relationships among human beings whereby trust can grow and flourish. Ultimately, God must know He can trust us with eternal life.

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - June 29, 2024 - Our ability to withstand the wiles of the devil relies heavily upon our spiritual footwear. As a piece of the whole armor of God, these shoes protect our feet from injury, keeping us in the fight. They give us the firm footing and confidence we need to stand fast, knowing the adversary has already been defeated through the salvational work of God and Christ. This is the good news of peace upon which we stand in the day of battle, unwavering and unconquered.

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - June 16, 2024 - Pentecost is a harvest festival and this is the "Age of Pentecost" right now. Today is the time for the firstfruits of God's family to be harvested out of this world. As such, we are part of God's ongoing creation, being molded into His image, as we yield ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

On October 18, 2016, Freda Jane KnowsHisGun stood patiently at a Walmart in Kennewick, Washington, awaiting an online money transfer from her friend. This transfer would have allowed her to make the journey back to her hometown of Crow Agency, Montana, where she was a member of the Crow Tribe. Fifteen minutes passed and Freda's friend decided to call her to check if she had collected the transfer. However, to their dismay, her phone had been disconnected. Freda disappeared without a trace and her family needs to know what happened to their loved one. If you have any information about the disappearance of Freda KnowsHisGun please call the Crow Agency Bureau of Indian Affairs 406-638-2631. Click here to join our Patreon.  Click here to get your own Inhuman merch.  Connect with us on Instagram and join our Facebook group.  To submit listener stories or case suggestions, and to see all sources for this episode: https://www.inhumanpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Monday, June 10th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus $130,000 for funeral expenses for martyred missionary couple in Haiti More than $130,000 has been raised online for the funeral and related expenses of husband and wife missionaries who were murdered in Haiti, reports MyChristianDaily.com. Davy and Natalie Lloyd, who served with Missions in Haiti, were killed in a gang attack, as violence has engulfed the nation. One GoFundMe campaign has raised close to $57,000, while a second fundraising effort has raised over $76,000. However, while the generosity of Christians has been exemplary, MissouriNet reports that online scammers are taking advantage of people wanting to help the families. Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker, who is the father of Natalie, explained that con artists have been creating fake fundraising pages to try and steal donations meant to help bring his daughter's body and her husband's body back to the U.S. Israeli Defense Forces rescue four hostages from Gaza Four Israeli hostages were rescued 245 days into their captivity, reports The Jerusalem Post. Working with other law enforcement officials, the Israeli Defense Forces, rescued them from two separate nearby locations in central Gaza in a high-risk joint operation. They include Noa Argamani, age 25, Almog Meir, age 21, Andrey Kozlov, age 27, and Shlomi Ziv, age 40, all of whom were kidnapped by Hamas and brought to the Gaza Strip from the 'Nova' party. This is the third such successful operation to rescue hostages since the war started on October 7th. An uncertain number of Palestinian terrorists and civilians were killed during the operation. The Israeli Defense Forces implied that dozens of terrorists were killed, but left open the possibility that potentially some dozens of Palestinian civilians might have also been killed. Interestingly, the U.S. provided intelligence on the hostages before Israel's successful rescue operation. Biden's DOJ indicts doctor who exposed transgender child mutilation at TX hospital Here in America, Biden's so-called “Department of Justice” is at it again. This time it indicted a small-town surgeon who revealed that ghastly transgender surgeries were being secretly committed on minors at Texas Children's Hospital after the hospital had purportedly discontinued its transgender program, reports LifeSiteNews.com.    Dr. Eithan Haim identified himself earlier this year as the anonymous whistleblower who provided evidence of the ongoing so-called “sex-change procedures” for children as young as 11 to Manhattan Institute journalist Christopher Rufo last year. Dr. Haim said that U.S. marshals showed up at his home earlier this week, summoning him to court to face four felony counts of alleged HIPAA violations.    Haim, a 33-year-old general surgeon, has always maintained that no medical privacy laws were broken when he provided evidence of Texas Children's Hospital's continued transgender program to Rufo. He told the Daily Wire, “It's my responsibility as a doctor, as a physician, to expose this to the public. If I don't, then this abuse can continue. I knew that future generations, like my children, would never be able to forgive me if they knew I had the chance to do something and I decided to stay silent. It requires average, everyday doctors to stand up and speak out against things like this.” Luke 12:2-3 says, "God has determined that the secrets will be uncovered, the truth will come forth, and God's thought about every behavior and action will be vindicated." Voddie Baucham: Pervasive sexual sin sign of God's judgment Pastor Voddie Baucham warned that the pervasive sexual sins of the prevailing culture are signs of divine judgment, but that the Gospel still offers hope and that American Christians should plead with God for revival while preparing for persecution. Baucham, who is on leave in the U.S. from his position as Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, preached from Romans 1 during an event last Saturday at Lamar Baptist Church outside Dallas. He cited some of the points he made in his new book entitled It's Not Like Being Black: How Sexual Activists Hijacked the Civil Rights Movement. Baucham noted the irony that he was making his remarks on the first day of pride month, which he referred to as "pride goes before destruction month." He noted that the Apostle Paul ultimately spends much of the first chapter of Romans explaining how the wrath of God manifests in the world by giving mankind over to sexual depravity and "a debased mind.” Romans 1:18-19, 26 says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. … Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” Baucham said, "We are living in a time, in an era when there are people who are desperately wicked, and in desperate need of repentance and faith, in desperate need of the Gospel.” In describing the evil culture in Romans 1, he said that the destruction starts with a denial of God and His authority, as well as a desire to suppress the truth, which he noted has long been readily apparent in modern culture. Baucham said that the consequence of such a worldview, first leads to general sexual immorality, which he explained first manifested in the Sexual Revolution and in the separation of sex from marital commitment and family. He also said contraceptives, abortion and the crisis of fatherlessness are connected to such an attitude. Baucham then explained that "dishonorable passions" are the next stage of divine judgment against a wicked culture, and suggested that the scale at which modern society is subject to them is historically unprecedented. … “Whenever we're pursuing one of God's good gifts outside of the boundaries wherein God gives that gift, it never brings us the satisfaction that we crave. And on top of that, it always brings us guilt and shame." Correction on Dwight D. Eisenhower's title In Friday's newscast, I incorrectly claimed that Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Major General on D-Day. Actually, his title on June 6, 1944 was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. My apologies. 24 Worldview listeners gave $7,268 And finally, toward our goal of raising $28,550 by this weekend to help keep the newscast on the air, 24 Worldview listeners stepped up to the plate.  That's the most response we have had since Monday, June 7th. Our thanks to Daniel in Mexico City, Mexico who gave $5, Nathan in Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia who gave $25, Gjon and Lynne in Bridgewater, Massachusetts who gave $33, as well as Jeremy in Grants Pass, Oregon, Jeffrey in Forest Hill, Maryland, and Patricia in Portland, Oregon – each of whom gave $50. We're grateful to Jennifer in Coos Bay, Oregon, Timothy in Pine Plains, New York, and Logan, Eli and Quin in Mhlambanyatsi, Eswatini or Swaziland, Africa -- each of whom gave $100 We appreciate Bianca in Mhlambanyatsi, Eswatini pledged $10 per month for 12 months for a gift of $120, Tristan in Summerdale, Alabama who gave $140, Robin in Simsbury, Connecticut $150, Peter in Seaside, California and Julie in Marion, Indiana – both of whom gave $200, as well as an anonymous donor in Independence, Missouri who gave $280. We're grateful to God for Jared in Caldwell, Idaho who pledged $25 per month for 12 months for a gift of $300, Erica in Littleton, Colorado who gave $365, as well as Merlin in Middlebury, Indiana and James in Kennewick, Washington – both of whom gave $500. And we were moved by the sacrifice of Sarah in Madera, California who gave $600, William in Lees Summit, Missouri and Steven in Plainview, Texas – both of whom pledged $50 per month for 12 months for a gift of $600 each, Carl in San Antonio, Texas who gave $1,000, and Robert in Boerne, Texas who pledged $100 per month for 12 months for a gift of $1,200. Those 24 Worldview donors gave $7,268. Ready for our new grand total? Drum roll please. (sound effect of drum roll) $14,583 (audience cheering) So, we fell short of our goal by $13,967. By this Friday, June 14th, our midway point in our month-long fundraiser, we need to raise an additional $42,517 toward our final goal of $114,200 to fund the 6-person team that makes this newscast come to life. We're looking for 10 Worldview listeners to pledge $100 per month for 12 months for a gift of $1,200, 35 folks to pledge $50 per month for 12 months for a gift of $600, and 70 people to pledge $25 per month for 12 months for a gift of $300. It would be exciting to see 30 new donors step up to the plate today. Just go to TheWorldview.com, click on “Give,” select the dollar amount you'd like, and click on the recurring button if that's your wish. And, if you haven't written me yet, share in 2-4 sentences what you appreciate about The Worldview. Make sure to include your city and state and country if outside America. Send your thoughts to Adam@TheWorldview.com. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, June 10th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on April 18. It dropped for free subscribers on April 25. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoPete Korfiatis, General Manager of Bluewood, WashingtonRecorded onApril 4, 2024About BluewoodClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Local investorsLocated in: Dayton, WashingtonYear founded: 1980Pass affiliations:* Indy Pass and Indy+ Pass: 2 days, no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Cottonwood Butte, Idaho, 3 hours eastBase elevation: 4,545 feetSummit elevation: 5,670 feetVertical drop: 1,125 feetSkiable Acres: 355Average annual snowfall: 300 inchesTrail count: 24 (30% difficult, 45% intermediate, 25% easy)Lift count: 4 (2 triples, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Bluewood's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himSomeday, if it's not too late, I'm going to track down the old-timers who snowshoed into the wilderness and figured this all out. The American West is filled with crazy little snow pockets, lesser-known mountain ranges spiraling off the vast plateaus. Much of this land falls under the purview of the United States Forest Service. In the decades immediately before and after World War II, the agency established most of our large western ski areas within its 193 million-acre kingdom. That's a lot of land – approximately the size of Texas – and it's not all snowy. Where there is snow, there's not always roads, nor even the realistic possibility of plowing one through. Where there are roads, there aren't always good exposures or fall lines for skiing.So our ski areas ended up where they are because, mostly, those are the best places nature gave us for skiing. Obviously it snows like hell in the Wasatch and the Tetons and the Sierra Nevadas. Anyone with a covered wagon could have told you that. But the Forest Service's map of its leased ski areas is dotted with strange little outposts popping out of what most of us assume to be The Flats:What to make of Brian Head, floating alone in southern Utah? Or Mt. Lemmon, rising over Tucson? Or Ski Apache and Cloudcroft, sunk near the bottom of New Mexico? Or the ski areas bunched and floating over Los Angeles? Or Antelope Butte, hanging out in the Wyoming Bighorns?Somewhere, in some government filing cabinet 34 floors deep in a Washington, D.C. bunker, are hand-annotated topo maps and notebooks left behind by the bureaucrat-explorers who determined that these map dots were the very best for snowsportskiing. And somewhere, buried where I'll probably never find it, is the story of Bluewood.It's one of our more improbable ski centers. Not because it shouldn't be there, but because most of us can't imagine how it could be. Most Washington and Oregon ski areas line up along the Cascades, stacked south to north along the states' western thirds. The snow smashes into these peaks and then stops. Anyone who's driven east over the passes has encountered the Big Brown Endless on the other side. It's surreal, how fast the high alpine falls away.But as Interstate 90 arcs northeast through this rolling country and toward Spokane, it routes most travelers away from the fecund Umatilla National Forest, one of those unexpected islands of peaks and green floating above our American deserts. Here, in this wilderness just to the west of Walla Walla but far from just about everything else, 300 inches of snow stack up in an average winter. And this is where you will find Bluewood.The Umatilla sprawls over two states and 1.4 million acres, and is home to three ski areas (Anthony Lakes and inactive Spouts Springs, both in Oregon, are the other two). Three map dots in the wilderness, random-looking from above, all the final product of years in the field, of hardy folks pushing ever-deeper into the woods to find The Spot. This is the story of one of them.What we talked aboutGrowing up Wenatchee; “the mountains are an addiction”; THE MACHINE at Mammoth; Back-In-The-Day Syndrome; Mammoth's outsized influence on Alterra Mountain Company; how the Ikon Pass strangely benefited Mammoth; the accidental GM; off the grid; Bluewood and southeast Washington's unique little weather pattern; “everybody that knows Bluewood comes for the trees”; why the Forest Service is selling a bunch of Bluewood's trees; massive expansion potential; when your snowline is 50 feet above your base area and you have no snowmaking; the winter with no snow; Skyline Basin and dreams that never happened; ambitious lift-upgrade plans; summer and “trying to eliminate the six-month revenue drought”; “if you take the North American lifts right now, they're only coming out because they're pieces of crap”; potential future chairlifts; Bluewood's owners and their long-term vision; mountaintop lodging potential; whether night skiing could ever happen; power by biomass; the Indy Pass; Southeast Washington ski culture; free buddy tickets with your season pass; Bluewood's season pass reciprocal program; why Bluewood's lift ticket prices are so low; and the absolute killer expense for small ski areas.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewOne of the more useful habits I've developed is attending offseason media events and consumer ski shows, where ski area managers and marketers tend to congregate. The regional gatherings, where mountain booths are stacked side by side like boxes in a cereal aisle, are particularly useful, allowing me to connect with reps from a dozen or more resorts in an hour. Such was the setup at the Snowvana “stoke event” in Portland, Oregon last November, which I attended both to host a panel of ski area general managers and to lay deeper roots in the rabid Pacific Northwest.Two podcasts emerged directly from connections I made that day: my February conversation with Red Mountain CEO Howard Katkov, and this one, with Korfiatis.So that's the easy answer: a lot of these podcasts happen simply because I was finally able to connect with whomever runs the mountain. But there's a certain amount of serendipity at work as well: Bluewood, right now, is on the move.This is a ski area that is slowly emerging from the obscurity I caged it into above. It has big-picture owners, an energetic general manager, a growing nearby population, and megapass membership. True, it also has no snowmaking and outdated, slow chairlifts. But the big, established ski centers to its west are overwhelmed, exhausted, and, with a few exceptions, probably un-expandable. Bluewood could be a big-deal alternative to this mess if they can do what Korfiatis says they want to do.There are a lot of millions standing between vision and reality here. But sometimes crazy s**t happens. And if it goes down at Bluewood, I want to make sure we're sitting right there watching it happen.What I got wrongI said that Mammoth was an independent mountain when Korfiatis arrived there in 2000. This is incorrect. Intrawest owned a majority stake in Mammoth from 1997 to 2006.Why you should ski BluewoodUsually, when casual skiers ask me where they ought to vacation, their wishlist includes someplace that's relatively easy to get to, where they can stay slopeside, where the snow will probably be good [whenever their kids' spring break is], and that is a member of [whatever version of the Epic or Ikon pass they purchased]. I give them a list of places that would not be a surprising list of places to anyone reading this newsletter, always with this qualifier: expect company.I like big destination ski areas. Obviously. I can navigate or navigate around the crowds. And I understand that 24-chairlifts-and-a-sushi-bar is exactly what your contemporary megapass patron is seeking. But if someone were to flip the question around and ask me which ski area characteristics were likely to give them the best ski experience, I'd have a very different answer for them.I'd tell them to seek out a place that's hard to get to, where you find a motel 40 miles away and drive up in the morning. Make it a weekday morning, as far from school breaks as possible. And the further you get from Epkon branding, the farther you'll be from anything resembling a liftline. That's the idea with Bluewood.“Yeah but it's only 1,100 vertical feet.”Yeah but trust me that's plenty when most of your runs are off-piste and you can ski all day without stopping except to ride the lift.“But no one's ever heard of it and they won't be impressed with my Instastory.”You'll live.“But it's not on my Ultimo-Plus Pass.”Lift tickets are like $50. Or $66 on weekends. And it's on the Indy Pass.“But it's such a long drive.”No it isn't. It's just a little bit farther than the busier places that you usually go to. But it's not exactly in Kazakhstan.“Now you're just making things up.”Often, but not that.Podcast NotesOn Bluewood's masterplanHere's the basic map:And the lift inventory wishlist:On Mission Ridge and WenatcheeKorfiatis grew up in Wenatchee, which sits below Mission Ridge. That mountain, coincidentally, is the subject of an already-recorded and soon-to-be-released podcast, but here's the trailmap for this surprisingly large mountain in case you're not familiar with it:On Mission Ridge's expansionAgain, I go deep on this with Mission CEO Josh Jorgensen on our upcoming pod, but here's a look at the ski area's big proposed expansion, which Korfiatis and I discuss a bit on the show:And here's an overhead view:On “The Legend of Dave McCoy”The Dave McCoy that Korfiatis refers to in the pod is the founder of Mammoth Mountain, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 104. Here's a primer/tribute video:Rusty Gregory, who ran Mammoth for decades, talked us through McCoy's legacy in a 2021 Storm Skiing Podcast appearance (18:08):On Kim Clark, Bluewood's last GMIn September 2021, Bluewood GM Kim Clark died suddenly on the mountain of a heart attack. From SAM:Longtime industry leader and Bluewood, Wash., general manager Kim Clark died of an apparent heart attack while working on the mountain Tuesday. He was 65. Clark had been the Bluewood GM since 2014.In a statement sharing the news of Clark's death, Bluewood said, “significant rescue efforts were unsuccessful. Kim passed away doing what he loved, with people he loved, on the mountain he loved.”Clark was an influential leader during his career in the mountain resort industry, much of which was spent at resorts in the Pacific Northwest. He is remembered by his peers as a mentor, a teacher, and a leader with a passion for the industry who cared deeply for the teams he led and the resorts he helped to improve.Prior to becoming GM at Bluewood, Clark led Mt. Ashland, Ore., as its general manager from 2005 to 2014.On the Tri-Cities of WashingtonImagine this: I'm 18 years old and some dude on the lift at Copper Mountain asks me where I'm from. I say “Michigan” and he says “where” and I say, “the Tri-Cities area” and he says “what on earth is that?” And I say “Oh you've never heard of the Tri-Cities?” as though he'd just told me he'd never heard of Paris. And he's like “no, have you ever heard of the Quad Cities?” Which apparently are four cities bunched along the Iowa-Illinois border around Interstate 80 and the Mississippi River.It was my first real-time lesson in hyper-regionalism and how oft-repeated information becomes so ingrained that we assume everyone must share it, like the moon or the wind. The Tri-Cities of Michigan are Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland. But no one who doesn't live there knows this or cares, and so after that chairlift conversation, I started saying that I was from “two hours north of Detroit,” which pretty much every American understands.Anyway imagine my surprise to learn that America had room for a second Tri-Cities, this one in Washington. I asked the robots to tell me about it and this is what they said:The Tri-Cities are three closely linked cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland)[2][3] at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia Rivers in the Columbia Basin of Eastern Washington. The cities border one another, making the Tri-Cities seem like one uninterrupted mid-sized city. The three cities function as the center of the Tri-Cities metropolitan area, which consists of Benton and Franklin counties.[4] The Tri-Cities urban area consists of the city of West Richland, the census-designated places (CDP) of West Pasco, Washington and Finley, as well as the CDP of Burbank, despite the latter being located in Walla Walla County.The official 2016 estimate of the Tri-Cities MSA population is 283,869, a more than 12% increase from 2010. 2016 U.S. MSA estimates show the Tri-Cities population as over 300,000. The combined population of the three principal cities themselves was 220,959 at the 2020 census. As of April 1, 2021, the Washington State Office of Financial Management, Forecasting Division estimates the cities as having a combined population of 224,640.[5]And actually, it turns out that there are tri-cities all over the country. So what the hell do I know? When I moved east to New York in 2002, it took me about five years to figure out what the “Tri-State Area” was. For a long time I thought it must be New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But it is New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, from which many people commute into NYC daily to work.On Scot Schmidt For those of you who don't know who “that guy” Scot Schmidt is:On the Greyhawk lift at Sun ValleyKorfiatis refers to the “Greyhawk lift” at Sun Valley as an example of a retiring high-speed quad that is unlikely to have a useful second life. He was referring to this lift, which from 1988 until last year ran parallel to the monster Challenger lift:Last summer, Sun Valley replaced both lifts with one Challenger six-pack with a mid-station, and built a new high-speed quad called Flying Squirrel (which replaced a shorter double chair of the same name that met death-by-fire in 2014):On the number of Washington ski areasWashington, while home to several legendary ski areas, does not have nearly as many as its growing, active population needs. Of the state's 17 active ski areas, five operate only surface lifts, and I'm not even certain whether one of them – Badger Mountain – operated this past ski season. Sitzmark also failed to spin its lift. There are really only nine volume-capable ski areas in the state: 49 Degrees North, Crystal, Mission Ridge, Baker, Mt. Spokane, Stevens Pass, Summit, Alpental, and White Pass. Here's an inventory:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing all year long. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 32/100 in 2024, and number 532 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Today's episode will be great. I originally got connected with him over 2 years ago. He was a client of Hite's for a bit. Since then, I've been watching him grow his company and venturing into new things. He's now a part of some of the same groups I'm in, and is also in our BOA community as well. We finally met in person this past year at RoofCON, and I love his commitment to self development and willingness to go to events just like that, to keep getting better. My guest today is Noe Madrigal. He is the President at A&A Roofing in Kennewick, WA and Host of The Unclouded Podcast. Noe's Bio: Noe Madrigal began his stewardship of A&A Roofing Services in 2021, bringing with him a fresh vision for a company that had been serving the Tri-Cities area since 2017. More than just roofing, Noe saw an opportunity to build lasting bonds with clients.His belief in the power of relationships transformed the business, leading to its expansion across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Under his leadership, A&A became synonymous with trust, quality, and the spirit captured in #SavedByRelationships.Today, it's not just about roofs, it's a commitment to excellence, and the enduring relationships that Noe nurtures every day.Connect with Noe:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noe.madrigal.9 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madrigal_noe/ Website: https://aandaroof.com/ 

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - April 13, 2024 - When Jesus finished washing His disciples' feet, He said, "I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you." When we wash one another's feet at the Passover, we must be reminded of the humility and approachability of Christ, taking on that same willingness to serve one another as living sacrifices and seeing the potential for which our spiritual brothers and sisters were created.

By Paul Moody in Chewelah, WA, Kennewick, WA, Spokane, WA - April 6, 2024 - There are many benefits we receive living under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. One of the greatest is peace. Jesus willingly took upon Himself the deserved punishment for our sins so we could be reconciled to the Father and experience true peace with Him and one another. The peace Christ bought us is a precious gift we must never take for granted.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - March 16, 2024 - Repentance isn't a "one and done" activity that took place at our baptisms. Rather, it is ongoing. It is a gift from God, a process of examining ourselves, searching for those areas that don't match up to Christ, then turning from our wrong ways to His right Way. The Spring Holy Days offer a tangible picture of self-examination and repentance as we search for physical leaven to put out of our homes. This physical process should point us to the spiritual process of self-examination that we should all be partaking.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - March 9, 2024 - Jesus Christ referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd. As such, He stood in stark contrast to the leaders of His day and set the example for other human shepherds in the Church who He would appoint. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name, binds up their wounds, protects them from danger, goes after those who are lost and lays His life down for His sheep.

Soccer is dumb, enjoy!  Email morrisonicpod at gmail if you live near Kennewick and want to scope out a dog for Pat!

3pm - Breaking: The Denver Broncos announce they’ll be releasing Russell Wilson on March 13th…. Making the Seahawks-Broncos trade one of the most lopsided in NFL history - Ry gives us the full report at 5:06pm // Community mourns loss of 27 y/o WSP Trooper hit and killed by impaired driver in Marysville on Saturday… // 24% of Washintonians want the state to secede // Could the US be headed for a National Divorce? // High School Fundraiser in Oklahoma: Students licking peanut butter off of other’s toes // Oddly similar to the viral teacher-student “licking game” that made news out of Kennewick, WA last year // What school fundraisers did you participate in as a kid? // There’s a company harvesting glacier ice in Greenland which gets shipped to Dubai to cool down VERY expensive drinks

6pm - Homeless people in Washington account for 41% of jaywalking tickets despite being .4% of the population… As someone who routinely almost hits jaywalking homeless people downtown; this tracks // Supreme Court unanimously overturns Colorado’s ballot ban on Trump // High School Fundraiser in Oklahoma: Students licking peanut butter off of other’s toes // Oddly similar to the viral teacher-student “licking game” that made news out of Kennewick, WA last year // What school fundraisers did you participate in as a kid? // There’s a company harvesting glacier ice in Greenland which gets shipped to Dubai to cool down VERY expensive drinks

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - February 24, 2024 - A large portion of scripture is devoted to both fulfilled and unfulfilled prophetic events. Studying into these events should bring us to repentance, motivate us to live godly lives and more fully help us understand the times in which we live. Most of all, prophecy proves that God is God.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - February 17, 2024 - Elijah was one of the mighty heroes of faith, someone we often feel we could never aspire to be. Yet we are told that his nature was like ours. His character was developed over many years, when he had to fully rely on God. We, too, have to learn to wait patiently for God to provide, and embrace the opportunities to develop faith and patience. God's blessing on us can enable blessings to flow to others. We can also learn from Elijah to be willing to cry out to God in difficult times, even when we don't understand what is going on. We must always run towards God, not away from Him!

In this gripping episode, we delve into the harrowing story of Barry Hornstein, a seemingly ordinary man whose life was forever changed by a targeted attack. On a tranquil morning in Laurelhurst, a bedroom neighborhood of Portland, miraculously escaped death. The ensuing investigation reveal a web of deception, manipulation, and terror. As detectives scramble to uncover the perpetrator behind the sophisticated assault, suspicion falls upon Barry's own family, including his estranged wife and teenage son, Jack. As the investigation unfolds, shocking revelations come to light, painting a picture of a calculated smear campaign and threats. The case takes a sinister turn, from a false alarm in Kennewick to chilling letters and email. Eventually, Timothy Michael Goff emerges as the prime suspect. With evidence linking him to the bombings and a disturbing history of exploitation, the true extent of his depravity is laid bare.As legal proceedings ensue, the prosecution faces challenges in presenting crucial evidence, raising questions about justice and accountability. Yet, amidst the turmoil, Barry finds solace in the love and support of his family, ultimately emerging stronger despite the ordeal. But Barry's optimism in the face of immense tragedy provides a glimmer of hope. Join us as we unravel the layers of this complex case, exploring the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity. This is a story of survival, redemption, and the enduring power of love in the darkest of times.This week we shared the podcast That's So Fcked Up!Visit our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, & more! If you have any true crime, paranormal, or witchy stories you'd like to share with us & possibly have them read (out loud) on an episode, email us at pnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or use this link. There are so many ways that you can support the show: BuyMeACoffee, Apple Podcasts, or by leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts.Pastebin: for sources. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pnw-haunts-homicides--5955451/support.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - February 10, 2024 - Throughout history, men of God have preached the gospel message of salvation to a world largely unwilling to hear. To those who are perishing, the true gospel is a foolish message spread by foolish preachers. But to those who are being saved, it is the power and wisdom of God unto life!

On this topical show, Crystal welcomes Everett Maroon, Executive Director of Blue Mountain Heart to Heart, for a conversation about their work in Southeast Washington using a harm reduction philosophy to support people, stabilize lives, & promote health and wellness in the community. Crystal and Everett chat about how the opioid epidemic has impacted rural communities, the role that stigma plays in keeping people from the help they need, what harm reduction is and why it is important. They then review the recent roller coaster ride of Washington state's substance use disorder policy, starting with the Washington Supreme Court's Blake decision, followed by a temporary legislative fix, then an impasse at the end of last year's legislative session, and finally a middle-of-the-road deal that recriminalized simple drug possession in addition to newly making public drug use illegal. Crystal and Everett lament the missed opportunity to meaningfully change the system & the continued lack of treatment services relative to need, and wrap up with what can be done at the state and local level to address the opioid crisis. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find more information about Blue Mountain Heart to Heart at https://bluemountainheart2heart.wordpress.com/.   Everett Maroon Everett is the Executive Director of Blue Mountain Heart to Heart. He supervises their program areas and is also responsible for fundraising, development, and evaluation of the agency. He has overseen a broad expansion of HIV case management services into Asotin and Garfield counties,  harm reduction programs into the Tri-Cities and Clarkston, and an innovative, outpatient opioid recovery program across six counties in Southeast Washington. Everett co-authored the now-completed Greater Columbia Accountable Community of Health's (GCACH) Opioid Resource Network, and contributed to the Washington State Opioid Strategy. He serves as a technical assistance provider on the Law Enforcement-Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program expansion in Washington State. Everett also is a state commissioner on the LGBTQ Commission. He has worked on quality improvement projects for various federal and state agencies for more than 28 years.   Resources Blue Mountain Heart to Heart   Eastern Washington Health Profile | Community Health and Spatial Epidemiology Lab at Washington State University   “Treating opioid disorder without meds more harmful than no treatment at all” by Mallory Locklear from YaleNews   “We Must Support People Who Use Substances, Not Punish Them. Here's How.” by Susan E. Collins, PhD for PubliCola   “New Law on Drug Possession, Use Takes Effect July 1, 2023” by Flannary Collins for Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington   Substance Use and Recovery Services Plan | Substance Use and Recovery Services Advisory Committee (SURSAC)   “Finally Addressing Blake Decision, Legislature Passes Punitive Drug Possession Bill” by Andrew Engelson from PubliCola    “Legislators Continue Failed War on Drugs Approach in Blake Fix Bill” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist   "WA's new drug law could help needle exchanges — or restrict them" by Andrew Engelson for Crosscut    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review show and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, I'm very pleased to be welcoming Everett Maroon, who's the Executive Director of Blue Mountain Heart to Heart. Everett supervises the program areas of Blue Mountain Heart to Heart and is also responsible for fundraising, development, and evaluation of the agency. He has overseen a broad expansion of HIV case management services, harm reduction programs to the Tri-Cities and Clarkston areas, and an innovative outpatient opioid recovery program across six counties in Southeast Washington. Everett co-authored the now-completed Greater Columbia Accountable Community of Health's Opioid Resource Network and contributed to the Washington State Opioid Strategy. He serves as a technical assistance provider on the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, program in Washington state. Everett is also a co-chair of the Washington state LGBTQ Commission. He's worked on quality improvement projects for various federal and state agencies for more than 28 years. And Everett and I also had the opportunity to both serve on a steering committee for a statewide ballot initiative surrounding decriminalization of substances. Welcome to Hacks & Wonks, Everett. [00:02:07] Everett Maroon: Thank you so much, Crystal. And it's really great to see you, and I appreciate having some time to talk with you today - so thank you. [00:02:15] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. So I just want to start off - what is Blue Mountain Heart to Heart? [00:02:21] Everett Maroon: Well, it's a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Southeast Washington state based in Walla Walla. We also have an office in Kennewick and then another one in Clarkston - roughly 30 people on staff. And it was founded in 1985, originally as an HIV concern, where we probably helped about 250 people live and pass away with dignity at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. Then was incorporated in 1991 - the organization moved into longer-term case management as the medications for HIV became more sophisticated and HIV went from being a death sentence to a chronic condition. And at that point, we began getting more involved in prevention of infectious disease, including HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs. I came along in about 2010, first as a grant writer and then as the executive director. And it really was notable to me - people would come in - if they had HIV, there was so much the state would do for them. And the state's interest was around public health - so if we keep people from being able to transmit this virus to other people, we'll keep the transmission rate low. In public health, we talk a lot about viral load - community viral load. And so you would add up the viral load of all the people living with HIV or AIDS in a community, and then that's the number that you get. And depending on how many people are in your community, you have a risk assessment for how much you should be concerned about HIV transmission in that community. Well, if you didn't have HIV and you came into my office, I had many more limitations on what I could do for you. Even if you were battling basically the same kinds of issues as people living with HIV had - unstable housing, lack of engagement in the workforce, mental health, substance use - all of these things rise up as things that destabilize people in their lives. Certainly systemic racism - the way that we invite so many foreign-born Latino farm workers to Washington state to pick our agricultural crops every year, but then pay them far below what a living wage would be. And we then expect that there's not going to be detrimental effects on those people. I think we all see that the state needs to do something different around supporting people who are here to make the state so profitable and make its agricultural sector so productive. So it really bothered me that - in one instance, because there was a transmissible disease associated with the potential client, we were all willing to put money into programs to support them. But then if they didn't, they just had the effects of the destabilizing forces around them and we weren't doing much. I really wanted to change that. I thought that we could get more investment in supporting people and stabilizing their lives and improving their wellness and health. And that that would be a good thing for everybody in the community, not just these people who were facing very serious gaps in resources and support. So we met as a board and a staff and changed our mission, amended a few things to it. And now our mission is really about helping people with a variety of different chronic diseases, including substance use disorder. There are certainly things to say about the limitations around the disease model for substance use, but when I'm thinking about federal and state funding for assistance programs, that model really helps create investment, financial support. So from 2010 to today, the agency has grown from about $150,000 in annual budget to about $4.1 million. We've gone from 2.5 FTEs a year to more than 30, and we have 14 case managers across 3 different case management programs. We have a drug user health equity program. And we still continue to have those prevention programs, but they're more aligned with case management. So we use a no-wrong-door approach here - no matter what your initial need is when you walk in, we try to see what other resources we can bring to bear to help that individual. So if you're coming in because you're using, or you need syringes for consuming - say, methamphetamine or something like that - you can also get nicotine cessation kits, you can get Plan B, you can get Naloxone because there may still be fentanyl in the substances you're consuming. We have a wound care clinic. We have a contingency management program for people who want to begin abstaining from methamphetamine. So no matter where someone's coming in, we have a variety of programs that we can try to support that person with. The harm reduction philosophy is one of the umbrella guiding value systems or philosophies for our work, even though we're doing some discrete specific activities for people. So that's, in a nutshell, what Heart to Heart is. We have a board of 9 and a staff of 30, and I think 28 of those positions are full-time. [00:07:47] Crystal Fincher: So who are you typically serving? [00:07:50] Everett Maroon: We see some diversity across our caseloads - it varies a little bit from program to program. I would say that we have somewhere around 55% are men and 45% are women. We do tend to see white, non-Hispanic people out here more often than not in our caseload, but we have about 12% of folks who are Hispanic and some other race - so white, mixed, African-American, Native. We see a lot of people on the far lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, I would say - and that varies a little bit from location to location. So when I look at who we've served in Clarkston, about 12% of our prevention clients tell us that they are unhoused and almost 40% of them are temporarily housed - so that could be like couch surfing or at a shelter. The unhoused number is highest for our Kennewick clients at 35.6%, so majority of people that we're serving in Kennewick are unhoused or temporarily housed. In Walla Walla, maybe about 20% of people are unhoused, but the people who are temporarily housed are in truly atrocious conditions. So there are a lot of people in Walla Walla living in someone else's shed or garage - they don't have access to plumbing, they don't have access to heat or air conditioning in the summer when it's 110 degrees out here. So there're definitely big stressors on the people that we're serving. A lot of the women that we're serving are in very abusive relationships, or they have experience being sex trafficked, or being made to participate in illegal activities in order to have a relationship or to have housing. So there are definitely gender differences in terms of what people are facing among our caseloads. Folks that are in some of the more rural areas that we serve with our mobile clinic - they are very concerned about other people in their small communities knowing what's going on with them. And so they're very reluctant to seek care because they don't want other people to know what they've been engaged in. And that is its own kind of barrier for them. [00:10:22] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And that being tied to the stigma that is causing so much shame, whether it's having HIV, an STI, substance use disorder - a variety of things where the stigma creates this shame cycle, which prevents people from seeking help, prevents people from getting better, and actually encourages the spread because of that and not being treated. Now, we met each other around the issue of substance use disorder. The landscape about how we deal with substance use disorder has changed over the years. Starting out, particularly with you being so engaged in so many different rural areas in Washington state, what have you seen or how has particularly the opioid epidemic impacted the communities you're working within? [00:11:15] Everett Maroon: I think that what you said about stigma is really relevant to answering this question. In large part, we see stigma coming in to sort of silence people and keep them away from seeking help. A 2019 study from Washington State University showed that in general, Eastern Washingtonians have a life expectancy of five fewer years than people living west of the Cascades. Part of the reason why is because of later dates of diagnosis, delayed care - those kinds of things add up for people en masse, and then we see a detriment to the outcomes for them. So if you don't get your cancer diagnosed until you're stage 3, your prognosis is worse than if you'd shown up really early in stage 1. The same kind of thing happens for people who are engaging in substance use. And just to be clear, many people use substances and don't become dependent on them. But when they do, it becomes very difficult very quickly for them to extract themselves on their own. Opioids in particular - because they so mimic this endorphin pathway that we all have as human beings - it's almost impossible for people to just will themselves to stop using because the withdrawal symptoms kick in so overwhelmingly that they just feel terrible. And so to deal with that, they use again. A different way of thinking about how people might seek help is to say it's going to be non-stigmatized for you to come into our office and say - I've been using fentanyl, I've been using meth, I've been using anything in front of me. What can we do today about reducing my use? There are very few places where somebody can walk into a doctor's office and say that and then be taken seriously and aided. When you're talking about rural environments, I think that the stereotype is that people in rural environments don't care about folks that are struggling with these issues. I see directly - I observe - it's that we have such a smaller, thinner resource infrastructure. It's that we have fewer providers. So if there's a problem with one provider, there might not be another one in your health insurance plan that you can go see. So now you got to either work with this person who says something stigmatizing to you, or you just don't do it. And if you return to this place of - Well, I'll just get through this myself. Well, we know that that's really not a good option for most people. It's not a realistic option for most people. So in my rural environment, what we've tried to do is build a trauma-informed, non-stigmatizing or anti-stigmatizing environment so that people know they can come in, tell us the God's honest truth about what's really going on with them. And we're going to start from whatever space zero is for them. So there're definitely folks who can tell us about a time they were entering treatment and then they relapsed and then they were kicked out of the program. Or due to relapse, they missed two appointments and then they were kicked out of the program. Where they admitted that even though they were getting Suboxone for their opioid dependence, they were still sometimes using meth on the weekends and then they were kicked out of the program. So we just believe in our harm reduction philosophy that - if we're not looking to dispose of people, but we're looking to retain them for future engagement, we're going to see better outcomes for them. Because we're going to walk with them as they stumble, because we acknowledge that that's part of what they're facing - occasional relapses and stumbles. And you can do that in an urban center and you can do it in a rural environment. We just have to have the commitment. [00:15:08] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now, I've heard a lot of people have different conceptions and misconceptions about harm reduction, and hearing - Well, if you don't require people to be clean before you help them. If you don't use this as a stick to get them to do what is best for them, then we're really just enabling their problem. We're becoming part of the problem. - Why is that not true? And what is harm reduction and why is it important? [00:15:39] Everett Maroon: That enabling hypothesis is very persistent, almost as persistent as opioid use disorder - it's been around a long time. But when you look at the actual evidence for treatment - in fact, there was a study that just came out that showed that treatment without prescribing a medication is almost worthless. We really need to be thoughtful about what clients need. If somebody had a heart attack after having a heart attack six months ago, the cardiologist would not say to them - Well, you had another heart attack. I refuse to see you anymore. If someone had type 2 diabetes and they walked into the doctor's office and the doctor said - Oh, your blood sugar is really high. You must not be following my treatment plan. I'm just going to cut off all of your insulin and see how you do. We would cite that provider for malpractice. But somehow when we're talking about meeting clients where they are or patients where they are around substance use, people rise up from the woodwork and say - You're enabling them. All we're trying to do is keep people engaged in care so that we don't lose them and we take away opportunities for them to make behavior change. If we're continuing to engage with people and motivating them to come in to see us, then we can provide them with more opportunities to stabilize their lives. If you stop trying to force a particular outcome on a client and you give them room to sort out what their priorities are, you're actually teaching them how to cope with stress the way we want to see people cope with stress - which is in an adaptive, positive way. When we get patronizing with people or we prescribe for people - You must do it this way, you cannot do it that way. Well, I see a lot of people who have overdosed and passed away waiting four weeks or more to get an assessment so they can get into treatment. So I know there has to be more ways for us to reach out to people where they're already at, so that we're not just losing them forever because nobody's going to get better from something if they're not even here anymore. So for me, what harm reduction means is - I'm using a respectful position as a professional to support people how ever they initially show up and to continually be there for them so that we can help them move through these stages of change that we know people go through when they're dealing with some behavioral health challenge. So if we allow people to come in and say - I relapsed last weekend - and they know that they can say that because we're not going to throw them out of the program for that. Then we can say - Okay, what do you think was the root cause of why you used again? And then you can sit down and say - Well, they wanted to please somebody, or it was offered to them and they weren't ready for it to be offered to them, or they haven't really broken out of this friend group that's always telling them to use it, or maybe a trauma happened to them. And then we can respond to that root cause and help them find another way to get through that if that ever happens to them again. If we had just said no to them and pulled a hard line on it, they would do no learning, we wouldn't learn as professionals, and we would lose that client. Life isn't perfect and people aren't perfect, so our programs should not demand that of them - in the same way that we don't demand it of other people who are living with conditions that we don't stigmatize like we stigmatize SUD. So harm reduction is very easily misunderstood, but it is also the most studied public health intervention of the last 30 years, with more than 1,500 different research efforts pointed at it. And what it has continually shown is that it is better at engaging people and retaining people and getting behavior change. So if you want to get concerned about a syringe service program in a particular neighborhood, do know that people that are going to it are five times as likely to get into recovery as people who don't utilize it. So I think that there are many ways that we could have this knee-jerk reaction against harm reduction, but at the end of the day - it gets people into recovery, it helps them reduce their use, it helps them stabilize the things in their life that were very out of control, and it helps keep them safer so that they encounter fewer infections and sequelae associated with having those infections. So we're here to help reduce the traffic on first responders and hospital systems and law enforcement. And I will just always sing the praises of the harm reduction approach because I see it work every single day. [00:20:42] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, like you, I've seen it work up close. You are certainly doing the work, have so much experience in seeing it work. But to your point, we have so much evidence. We have so much data pointing towards this being the most effective method. And it is largely because of stigma and because these deeply entrenched narratives and beliefs - largely by people who don't know many people who've been in this situation, or who hear an anecdote that is happy and was the case for one person but is not addressing what the majority of people are experiencing and what is shown is helpful. And principally, addiction is not a logical activity - people are not making inherently logical decisions. You can't just say - Well, I've decided that this person is going to be hitting rock bottom. They need to hit rock bottom in order to really get things together, and certainly the logical response to something going bad is to prevent the things that caused it from going bad and changing behavior. - And nothing about the reality of substance use disorder functions like that. And our refusal to come to grips with that from a policy perspective is playing out and seeing worse outcomes on our streets in many situations, worse outcomes in our communities - both people housed and unhoused, with great support without great support - it is just such a challenge. And I appreciate people in your position, organizations like yours, who are engaged in really trying to do that. Now, in Washington state, we've had a bit of a roller coaster ride over the past few years when it comes to substance use disorder policy, drug policy, and how we've approached it. Which kicked off this roller coaster ride with the Blake decision by our State Supreme Court, which basically decriminalized personal possession of all substances in our state, which kicked off a reaction that said - Oh, but drugs are bad and we have an opioid crisis. So clearly we need to reinstitute these laws, crack down and reinstitute penalties, and make sure we know this is criminal behavior and we can lock people up for engaging in personal use, now use in public places. - What is your opinion of that approach? [00:23:06] Everett Maroon: Well, the State Supreme Court was not trying to decriminalize drug possession in Washington state. It was saying that the statute as written, which was different from all 49 other states in the United States, was not constitutional. Because there was no other statute that they could turn to to say this is how law enforcement should enforce simple drug possession, we then did not have a statute on the books that was valid for detaining people around that for, I think, eight weeks. You will note that the state of Washington did not completely fall apart in those eight weeks with no drug possession statute. But it is an extremely common statute to cite people on, which is why it's costing the state millions and millions of dollars - I think seven figures, right? Eight figures. It's in the tens of millions of dollars. To re-adjudicate all of these sentences - because when you void the statute, you void all of those convictions that go back to the 1970s. So it was very commonly asserted in courts across the state of Washington - the statute around possession without intent - and so prosecutors did not want to not have something to turn to. When I talk to jailers and corrections staff, when I talk to many sheriff's deputies - the people who are actually on the ground - and many peace officers in city police departments, everybody knows that simply locking people away and arresting them and demanding accountability from them hasn't worked. If it had worked, we would not be here today. So people were really ready when the Blake decision came down, in my opinion, to do something different. But systems don't like system change. Systems are very stubborn and they want to stay in the track that they've been in, which is why reform is so difficult. So in the response that came immediately from Blake, they opened up a bill - even though it was now out of the timeline for the legislative cycle. So they made all these exceptions for themselves so that they could run a bill through. And that was - the engrossed Senate bill 5476 came out in 2021 and stood up a temporary measure. And they said this will sunset June 30th of 2023. And of course, by then, we'll have a new statute. We would never not attend to this. So they gave themselves a two-year window. Well, in 2023, the legislature was not decided on how to respond. Should it be back to a felony? Should it remain just a misdemeanor? Maybe it should be a gross misdemeanor. Maybe we shouldn't make this gross misdemeanor have a sentence of 364 days, but we'll have it make a sentence of 180 days. Maybe that's actually worse. So there was no real throughline in the policy debate around what to do for simple possession. Meanwhile, to the south of us, Oregon had - through ballot initiative - decriminalized all drugs. There's some evidence saying that's been a good thing for them, there's some evidence saying that hasn't been a good thing for them. Oregon is less than half the population of Washington state and has a much smaller revenue base. We've got very large corporations set up in Washington state that Oregon simply doesn't have, including Amazon and Boeing and many other big players, that give us a much bigger budget than Oregon gets. So I feel like it was maybe foreseeable that the legislative session would end without answering this question. Legislature, in the long year, ends in early May. So now they had less than two months before this statute was going to disappear. And I have heard from several people, why didn't we get there? The progressives ran out of the room and said - We can't vote for this. The GOP had decided they weren't going to vote for the bill as written because it wasn't enough about accountability, which is their new catchphrase for saying the onus is on the individual to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and not have a drug problem anymore. That left only the middle-of-the-road Democrats and they were not enough to carry the day on that vote. Well, then in the intersession between the special session that was called and the end of the regular session, there was a lot of dealmaking and communication. And what we got out of it were some of these middle-of-the-road ideas. So, in fact, it is now a gross misdemeanor with a 180-day sentence. It does still have a line into diversion programming - so instead of arrest, you can put somebody into the Recovery Navigator program that got set up by 5476. And they fixed some problems that were in the paraphernalia statute, so now it is clearly legal again to put out litmus tests to the public so they can test their substances for fentanyl and those things. The other thing it did was clarify for municipal officials - they can regulate some pieces of harm reduction activities or harm reduction-related activities, most notably around whether organizations or agencies can hand out safer smoking kits. This is an important question because when the pandemic hit, heroin dried up because shipping stopped, which meant smuggling stopped. And the world really got heroin from one notable place - Afghanistan - and when the poppies couldn't be processed anywhere because they couldn't get transported anywhere, China showed up with synthetic fentanyl precursors that Mexican cartels were really happy to turn into fentanyl. And rather than coming all the way from Afghanistan and around to Asia and then the United States, they could just be right next door to the United States. And so they flooded the markets in the U.S. with really cheaply made, very inconsistent fentanyl products. Fentanyl is so much more potent than heroin or any organic opioid. And fentanyl has a much shorter half-life, so people who I saw as participants who were making do with shooting up heroin 3 times a day, now were using fentanyl 30 times a day, and everything fell apart for them. They could not hold a job anymore. They couldn't manage relationships with their family. They couldn't stay housed. Because it was all about that next hit to delay the withdrawal symptoms, which were much worse on fentanyl than they ever felt on heroin. So we had 933 Narcan uses to reverse overdose in 2023, and we had 301 in 2021. So within two years, we saw the crisis hit a threefold increase - that is really astounding. It's horrifying. So King County, I think, has had a 47% increase in overdose fatalities in the last year. There are other places around the state that look more like 28% or 30%. But those are still terrible increases in fatality. It's not really clear where overdose as an event that maybe doesn't lead to a fatality is because many of these events don't ever get captured by first responder systems or hospital systems. But what I see from self-reports from our participants is that it's much, much worse. So I think it's good that the state is making these investments in diversion, but we really don't have the treatment bed capacity that the legislature is pointing people to go into. If everybody who wanted to be in treatment today could be in treatment today, there'd be enormous waiting lines. So we have to do a lot more - again, at the system level - and we have to lower the barriers to getting into treatment. So I'm really happy this year to be a part of the Bree Collective that is going to look at treatment reform for OUD. They did look at this in 2017, and this is the first time the Bree Collective has come back to look at the same issue again. But as you said earlier, so much has changed so rapidly that we need to return. [00:32:09] Crystal Fincher: As I look at that law and what happened with that law - one, I still mourn a little bit the opportunity that was there, but these things happen with policy all over the place. One of the things initially after that decision, the first Blake fix - because there are basically two attempts to fix it through legislation - is everyone seemed to agree, whether it was Republican, Democrat, progressive, conservative, that we don't have adequate detox capacity. We don't have adequate treatment capacity. And that requires a lot of investment and people wonder where they're going to get the money from - there's not universal agreement on that - but that we are lacking there. And part of what I heard from legislators with the intention after the first shot at the fix, where they applied the sunset, and there was - You know, evidence does point to more of a public health-based approach and less of a carceral approach to substance use disorder. But we don't have the infrastructure necessary to responsibly do that, so we need a stopgap in between. So we are providing these carceral solutions to this program with the hope that we take these two years - we really do a lot on adding capacity, making needed investments, and making sure the infrastructure is there so that when we do divert someone, there is treatment there for them to go. Now, the pandemic happened in that interim, which threw a lot of things off - it's not like people simply sat there and said, We plan to do nothing from the outset, this is just a whole red herring. But it didn't happen. And then politics happened and people got afraid of being called soft on crime and soft on drug use, basically. And that motivated some fear-based legislation or provisions. And so what we wound up with was - in the second fix - was less of a focus on diversion - they basically made that largely subject to prosecutorial discretion. Although they did, like you said, shore up paraphernalia concerns. But they did weaken the ability to reliably stand up harm reduction services and gave cities basically the latitude to say - We don't have to have these in our community - which is harmful because oftentimes, harm reduction services are where people who fall through the cracks of the other programs, people who are rejected from the other programs, people who people say - Well, they won't accept help. Well, they will from harm reduction services that are truly aligned with trying to help them as a person and meet them where they're at. So with this landscape that we have now, what has this done to you as a service provider and your ability to meet the needs of this community? [00:34:59] Everett Maroon: Let's be clear about what allowances they gave municipalities to affect the work of harm reduction organizations. The State Supreme Court still, very clearly, in 1988 said that giving people clean syringes and the associated other medical supplies is an essential public health program. So there's really nothing that municipalities can do to end actual syringe exchange, be it on a needs-based or a one-to-one-based exchange. There's nothing unlawful about it, and there's nothing that local government can do to stop that work. Where they can come in and say - No, you can't do this - is around the safer smoking kit provision and around litmus tests, because those are the newest things that have been added. Those were clearly not what the State Supreme Court was thinking about back in 1988. So what I've seen happen are harassment campaigns that have been semi-organized, that have made people fearful of going to SSP sites. And I've seen that when public health entities are doing those harm reduction programs, that you can defund those projects. And that stops the work there. But they still don't have the availability to come in and as a county commission or a planning commission for a city council, come in and say - You can't give out syringes to people. So they can't do that. And let's just note for a moment that the safer smoking kits - they're called things like crack pipes, which elicits this whole racist juggernaut that was put on people in the 1980s, again, because they were talked about in very racialized terms and very racist terms. Whereas people using a different form of cocaine just didn't face the same kinds of penalties and consequences. So it is a reminder to me that local government could have this effect on one kind of harm reduction activity and not another, that we're still operating through a very racist white supremacist lens here with regard to drug policy in Washington state. So for people who are thinking that they're acting agnostic to race and history of racism, I have news for you. You're not. You're still supporting those systems. I think it's very possible for harm reduction organizations to get legal representation - maybe through entities like the ACLU, but there's certainly other people around the country who are very concerned that harm reduction be able to continue unabated to support people through this deepening overdose crisis, who can help you make arguments like - this is a protected class of patients. So very clearly, people with opioid use disorder and substance use disorder are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. And so local government that doesn't have a lot of money should think very carefully about how to restrict - if their goal is to restrict - these operations, because they may very quickly run afoul of the ADA. Also, and I'm not a legal advisor - I just say it as someone who's already come up against these issues - they may also very easily run afoul of the Equal Protections Clause of the United States Constitution. And that is very important for them to think about because damages related to not being in compliance with that are very high, can be very high. And so I really would recommend that people in local government volunteer or at least take a tour of these harm reduction organizations in their midst, have a better understanding of what they're trying to do, and start to ask questions with those harm reductionists about how can we align your work with, say, the work of first responders, the work of law enforcement who are engaged in diversion? How can we help align it with people who are offering treatment in our areas? I would love to see communities around Washington state put together interagency workgroups to try to help respond to the crises that are local to them. Certainly every community has different kinds of resources, different kinds of limitations, different kinds of advantages, things that they've done when working together that have produced great things for their communities. This is one of those times when we really can come together and instead of pointing at each other saying - You're not doing enough or you're doing the wrong thing - we really can say - Wait a minute, these are our kids, our spouses, our neighbors, our co-workers, and we want to show up for them. So how can we do that? And if we all work to have a better understanding of each other, I think we're going to have much better responses on the ground than in simply looking to curtail this activity. [00:40:10] Crystal Fincher: I think sometimes we get into - we're looking at this from the outside, we're looking at the legislative session, and it is really simple to see - okay, they're entrenched in their interests, and we disagree, and therefore, they cannot be part of what a solution needs to be moving forward, or I can't work with them. Well, what I've seen - numerous examples across policy areas - of when people do sit down together and commit to listening to each other and understand that - Okay, we actually have a number of goals that align here. And how can we work together to make those happen is a really positive thing. Do you see examples of multi-agency responses working well in Washington? [00:40:55] Everett Maroon: Yeah, we even have one here in Walla Walla, that is run through our public health organization, and it's a behavioral health mapping program. And I think it's doing well to try to help figure out what can we - again, what resources can we wrap around people not necessarily in crisis, but near crisis, who may be in crisis at some point in the near future. I think co-responder programs are doing really well in various places around the state. And I think the world of the Let Everyone Advance with Dignity or Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion programs - I run two of them. And I see prosecutors and corrections officers and population health and case managers and DSHS all showing up to say - Okay, wait, we're going to - here's all the things we know about Sally and how can we help Sally today? And when you turn around and you get a phone call from someone, they say - Hey, I'm calling you from treatment and I'm feeling great. Or they say - Here's a photo of me. I got a photo from someone who was in the woods on the west side and they're holding their kid. And thanks so much, I never thought I'd get my kid back. And they're out in the woods with the mountains behind them - that can and does happen. I would not be such a champion for harm reduction if I didn't see it working all the time to help people reclaim their lives. But sometimes it's no longer appropriate for them to just try and do it themselves and do it just with their families, that they have maybe burned or lied to and all of that. It's better for them to work with professionals and then they can return and re-engage those systems that they thought they were alienated from. But I see it all the time and I know that we can do it and we have to dig in as communities. [00:42:37] Crystal Fincher: So we're currently in the midst of a legislative session. We have several cities and counties trying to deal with this in various ways. The state is trying to basically incrementally provide more capacity as they find and identify revenue to be able to do that. It's slower than all of us would like, certainly, but they are and have been moving towards that. What would your recommendation to legislators be this session? And what would your recommendation to local elected officials be for what can most meaningfully address this opioid crisis? [00:43:14] Everett Maroon: I think that local governments are well-suited to looking at their regulations around housing, capacity, zoning, and helping situate things like recovery houses, transition housing, places where people can go to restart. But as long as we are trying to do treatment and therapy and wraparound care for people who are unhoused, we're just fighting - we're fighting the tide with our little sandcastle. So we have to think about what those barriers to the outcomes we want to see really are. We certainly need specific housing for women fleeing abuse. We need specific housing for single men, but also families. We need to be able to help people step back up into more traditional housing over time. I think the state has a lot of priorities, and I appreciate that in Washington state, only a small amount of our budget is really actionable through discretionary means. There's so much that we have to spend on by statute or by ruling. And so it's a really difficult question, and I don't envy the legislators trying to tackle it. But when we try to take things little bit by little bit and we're not looking at the whole big picture, then we run into a lot of false starts and failures, and then people start to question if the approach is even right. I swear on all that's holy, the approach is right. But we can't get tens of thousands of people out of this situation very quickly if we don't have attention to housing, if we don't have treatment beds and treatment providers. If it takes three years to get the certification to be an SUDP, you are basically saying we have to wait three years for anything to change in Washington state. So we have to be thinking about workforce resources, housing, programs to help people deal with the trauma that they've picked up either on their way to using substances in a maladaptive way or after they started using them in a maladaptive way. I know people are going to say - Everett, where's the money come from? But I love this idea of health engagement hubs. But boy, the SURSAC committee asked for 10 sites and they got 2. It's just going to take us longer to figure out how to tweak that model to see how to make it work in as many places as possible. And I know also if we get people housed and we get them reengaged in the workforce and we get them back with their families, it's going to generate so much more revenue for the state. We're asking to front-load some programs so that we can get the benefits for a long time after. [00:46:02] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And it is an issue of when and how you pay for it, fundamentally. Dealing with all of the symptoms of substance use disorder, all of the outcomes when you don't treat this in a way that is likely to lead to recovery. Then we see this manifesting in a wide variety of ways and making the other issues that we're dealing with from homelessness to the wealth divide to just everything that we're dealing with - education - so much harder, so much more expensive. We're placing this burden on ourselves, really. So we have to systemically look at getting ourselves out. I appreciate that. For people in their communities who are listening and just thinking - Okay, I hear this and we need to do something. I see this problem in my community. I know this is a problem. We need to do something. And the low-hanging fruit of something in communities seems to always be - Okay, we'll pass a law, we'll toughen a penalty. What can they look to or help with or get involved with in their communities that is likely to lead to a more positive outcome? [00:47:11] Everett Maroon: There are all kinds of things people can do based on their own ability, interest, time, and their connections. So if there's a leadership group in your town, join it. If there's a behavioral health committee through public health or city council, go to those meetings. Get a seat at the table. Pester people in your council and commissioner meetings. Ask them how they're working on it. Look at the budgets that are public budgets and ask the funders how do they evaluate the people who are providing services. There are lots of things that you can do to check in on how things are going. You can always write letters to the editor telling people about why they should themselves get involved in this work. You can volunteer at these organizations that are doing the work. And even if you just want to go be a candy striper at your local emergency department, there's a lot that you can do to help people there. Or if you're more into serving at a soup kitchen - consider that a lot of people who are living on the street don't have anybody say anything nice to them all day long. You can be that person. You can be the one who helps build a bridge back to their sense of humanity and connection to the community. So I worked in soup kitchens a lot, and I initially worked there because I had to do community service after shoplifting. So I will say that publicly - I was 22 years old and supremely stupid. But I learned so much from doing my time there. And then I continued to work at that soup kitchen for two or three years after that, because it just was so meaningful to me to be able to commune with people and help them feel okay about this one moment in their day. So I think shoplifting - the best thing I did for myself was get caught. [00:48:56] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Everett, for your time today, for your wisdom and knowledge. We will continue to pay attention to how things progress through session, through different cities in the state - but really appreciate your experience and perspective here. [00:49:13] Everett Maroon: Thank you so much, Crystal. I appreciate the opportunity. [00:49:15] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is produced by Shannon Cheng. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on every podcast service and app - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - January 27, 2024 - What does it mean to walk worthy of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the gospel message? From the beginning to the end of the biblical record, we are admonished to pay close attention to our conduct so that our lives bring glory to God. We have been given an amazing calling, and our daily actions must be found walking in agreement with that standard.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - January 27, 2024 - One of the many internal proofs of the Bible is the fact that in spite of being written over a period of 1500+ years by 40 different writers, there is a united, consistent flow of themes and ideas. Histories presented in the Old Testament are fleshed out and given added meaning in the New Testament. The promises of God are shown to come to pass. Some prophecies have details added as the Bible progresses through time. We can be assured that the Bible is indeed the complete, inspired Word of God by the unity of the Scripture.

Lenny Ayres Kennewick HS Part 2!

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - January 6, 2024 - Marriage is a special covenant ordained of God from creation. As a loving Father, God gives us the institution of marriage that we might learn to love one another as He loves us. This message looks at the biblical roles of both the husband and the wife, which God designed to be a blessing. It also contains a number of vital tips which all couples should build into their marriages.

Lenny Ayres Head Coach Kennewick High School

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - December 30, 2023 - Opportunities don't last forever. The time to develop a relationship with God is now. The time will come when there is no more time - if we seek God with all our hearts and are not complacent, He will be found by us.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - December 23, 2023 - Many in the religious world around us are well-intentioned in their worship, but it also needs to be true. True worship of God begins with knowing Him and doing what He commands. The blending of false and true religion is called syncretism, something which God hates. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. This message also explores the roots of some of the symbols associated with Christmas.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - December 9, 2023 - We live in a world full of noise! As God's people we must learn to quiet our environment and draw close to Him, just as Jesus Christ did. Spiritual quietness is an effect of the righteousness of God at work in our lives, but it has to start somewhere. It begins with finding our quiet times and places were our relationship with our heavenly Father can be developed and nurtured.

The Christmas Lighted Boat Parade, which began back in the 1960s, will ply the waters of the mighty Columbia River between Kennewick and Richland this weekend.

What’s Trending: A not so happy ending for the Kennewick mayor, Tim Scott announces he is out of the presidential race and more free rides being passed out. LongForm: Mark Lindquist (attorney) weighs in on Mayor Angela Birney’s decision to turn her social media to private. Is it legal? Quick Hit: MIT hides and doesn't expelled anti-semitic activists. 

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - October 28, 2023 - In the Church, God has called multiple generations to be in the same congregation. Those who are younger can benefit from the wisdom and experience of those who have been walking this Way for decades. Those who are older can also be benefited from those who are younger. In order to realize these benefits, we need to develop relationships with brethren across differing generations.

By Paul Moody in Kennewick, WA, Kettle Falls, WA, Spokane, WA - November 4, 2023 - Discipleship includes not only learning what the instructor is teaching but following that instructor in all they do. As Christ's disciples, we should be striving to emulate everything He did as we live this life. When people look at us, they should see a representative of Christ, ultimately seeing Christ in us. There will be challenges, but the rewards far outweigh any cost we may have to pay.